Hi everyone, and welcome to the Year 11 Biology wiki page. This will be your portal for resources, information, communication and assessments over the next coming weeks. Some further information about what all this is about can be found below...
What is a wiki?
I have decided to make things a little more interesting for your up-coming Biology classes by setting up this wiki space page. For those of you who have not come across this before, a wiki is basically an online place where members can communicate and share ideas, thoughts and resources. Wikis are great to use for group work, where team members can communicate with others and share all sorts of information. This particular wiki has been set up so that we can do just that and hopefully much more.
How do I get my own wiki page?
The first thing you will need to do is sign up for a wiki page and to become a member at the following link:
Once you are a member, you can be invited to other people's wiki pages or you might like to create a network of your own. I will invite you to this wiki page, once you have informed me that you have become a member. Once we're up and running, you can do things like personalise your wiki page, add useful links on the home page of this wiki, share ideas, etc. The possibilities are quite endless!
Why a wiki?
One of the reasons why I have chosen to use a wiki is simply because it is different approach to learning than what you might usually experience with your regular classroom activities. Secondly, most of you will have grown up using computers and the Internet on a regular basis, so it seems natural to start using online tools like this wiki space as a different approach to learning. Most importantly, you are the first group in which I have tried this with, so feel special and I hope that we can all learn great things from using this tool!
What you CAN'T do with your wiki It is important that you read and acknowledge the following conditions before you set up your wiki page.
1. IDENTITY AND PRIVACY
You cannot sign up for a wiki with an offensive username (check with me before you sign up).
You cannot post any photographs of yourself or others for security reasons.
2.CYBERBULLYING
You are not to post derogatory or explicit comments and materials on this wiki or those belonging to others. Those who do so will be removed from the wiki.
3. PLAGIARISM
Any written content that is not your own cannot be posted on your wiki page as this is a copyright infringement.
Any text that is used from online or offline resources must be referenced and put into your own words.
How do I communicate through wiki spaces?
Discussion link: You can start discussion threads for any subject matter. Think of this as an email which everyone can reply to with their own comments. Email link: There is also an email function for every wiki. I will use this to invite you to this wiki page and you can use this to communicate with others.
Other reminders Editing: Wiki spaces does not currently have a spell or punctuation checking function so please consider using Microsoft Word to check over your spelling and grammar before publishing text on the wiki. This is particularly important when submitting assignments - establish good habits by carefully reading over your notes before submitting your assignments/tasks.
A final note
This is all brand new stuff to me so I'll continue to play around with the structure of the wiki and add more necessary items as we go along. The best way to learn about the wiki is to explore the features for yourself. You'll find that it is extremely user-friendly and will hopefully keep you thoroughly engaged. Be sure to post through the Discussion thread if you have any inquiries or suggestions on how to improve the wiki.
Lastly, check out the fantastic video link below by Lee LeFever who explains how wikis work in plain English:
Welcome!
Hi everyone, and welcome to the Year 11 Biology wiki page. This will be your portal for resources, information, communication and assessments over the next coming weeks. Some further information about what all this is about can be found below...What is a wiki?
I have decided to make things a little more interesting for your up-coming Biology classes by setting up this wiki space page. For those of you who have not come across this before, a wiki is basically an online place where members can communicate and share ideas, thoughts and resources. Wikis are great to use for group work, where team members can communicate with others and share all sorts of information. This particular wiki has been set up so that we can do just that and hopefully much more.
How do I get my own wiki page?
The first thing you will need to do is sign up for a wiki page and to become a member at the following link:
www.wikispaces.com
Once you are a member, you can be invited to other people's wiki pages or you might like to create a network of your own. I will invite you to this wiki page, once you have informed me that you have become a member. Once we're up and running, you can do things like personalise your wiki page, add useful links on the home page of this wiki, share ideas, etc. The possibilities are quite endless!
Why a wiki?
One of the reasons why I have chosen to use a wiki is simply because it is different approach to learning than what you might usually experience with your regular classroom activities. Secondly, most of you will have grown up using computers and the Internet on a regular basis, so it seems natural to start using online tools like this wiki space as a different approach to learning. Most importantly, you are the first group in which I have tried this with, so feel special and I hope that we can all learn great things from using this tool!
What you CAN'T do with your wiki
It is important that you read and acknowledge the following conditions before you set up your wiki page.
1. IDENTITY AND PRIVACY
- You cannot sign up for a wiki with an offensive username (check with me before you sign up).
- You cannot post any photographs of yourself or others for security reasons.
2. CYBERBULLYING- You are not to post derogatory or explicit comments and materials on this wiki or those belonging to others. Those who do so will be removed from the wiki.
3. PLAGIARISMHow do I communicate through wiki spaces?
Discussion link: You can start discussion threads for any subject matter. Think of this as an email which everyone can reply to with their own comments.Email link: There is also an email function for every wiki. I will use this to invite you to this wiki page and you can use this to communicate with others.
Other reminders
Editing: Wiki spaces does not currently have a spell or punctuation checking function so please consider using Microsoft Word to check over your spelling and grammar before publishing text on the wiki. This is particularly important when submitting assignments - establish good habits by carefully reading over your notes before submitting your assignments/tasks.
A final note
This is all brand new stuff to me so I'll continue to play around with the structure of the wiki and add more necessary items as we go along. The best way to learn about the wiki is to explore the features for yourself. You'll find that it is extremely user-friendly and will hopefully keep you thoroughly engaged. Be sure to post through the Discussion thread if you have any inquiries or suggestions on how to improve the wiki.
Lastly, check out the fantastic video link below by Lee LeFever who explains how wikis work in plain English:
"Wikis in Plain English" by Lee LeFever
Have fun with it!
Cheers, Miss Nguyen